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Cranston elections official warns SAVE Act and presidential order could cut federal election funding and complicate voter registration
Summary
Nick Lima, Cranston’s registrar and director of elections, told the City Council the president’s recent executive order and the federal SAVE Act could jeopardize HAVA funding, require documentary proof of citizenship for many registrants and create operational and legal burdens for local election offices.
Nick Lima, Registrar and Director of Elections for the City of Cranston, told the City Council on April 28 that a recent presidential executive order and the federal SAVE Act would, if upheld, threaten federal funding for elections and could make voter registration and ballot access more difficult for many residents.
Lima said the order would require documentary proof of citizenship — for example, a passport or certified birth certificate — on federal voter registration forms and tie future federal funding to state compliance. “The passport requirement is new and that's concerning because over half of Americans don't have a passport,” Lima said, and warned the change could disenfranchise overseas and military voters who use the federal postcard application process.
The registrar summarized three separate but related threats: the executive order; the SAVE Act (pending in…
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